Ok, again, I apologize that this one is so short. I will try to make them longer. :-]

Part 13

Dr. Schiaca told her that the Pentothal would keep him asleep for at least twelve hours, so if she needed to get anything done, she needed to do it within that time. She had an idea of what she could do. She felt bad about wanting to check out the machine things, but she had to know. What was the worst that could happen, she would find that he had no ties to the attacks whatsoever? Even so, she still had to find out.

With her key, she had access to basically the entire Veidt building, even at six o'clock in the morning. She booted one of the computers on the pitch-black twelfth floor, it's blue glow helping with the darkness. Booting took nearly ten minutes, so she used that time to pull out all the records of purchases, flights plans, financials, pretty much everything. Which, as you can imagine, was each a huge notebook in itself. And that was just October. She had to rummage through several different people's desks to come across all of them, but she figured, hey, they wont mind. It's not like they were coming back… ever.

For more than an hour, she went through papers and databases to no avail. But then she found discrepencies in records. On all the written records of carrier trucks and aircraft owned by Pyramid, was Adrian's name. But in the computer databases, it was under someone named Lucas Blauvelt. She had heard that name before…

Lucas was the name of Adrian's father, and Blauvelt was his mother's maiden name. But they were dead. Why would he use someone else's name? Unless it was something he didn't want to be discovered under his name. So she searched for the names of the employed Pyramid truck drivers.

Andrew Lowe, truck driver; stationed in Los Angeles. Deceased in the attacks of Dr. Manhattan. Nathaniel Silver, truck driver; stationed in Paris. Deceased, unknown causes. Bob Hawkins, cargo jet pilot; stationed in Moscow. Found dead in apartment, cause unknown. David Briar, truck driver; stationed in New York. Deceased, mugged and killed on October 31st. Graig Daniels, truck driver; stationed in Beijing. Deceased in the attacks of Dr. Manhattan.

Grace's heart jumped into her throat. The entire list of them, one for each of the destroyed cities, continued like that. Coincedence, she told herself quickly. Millions of people died that day. Was it such a stretch that all of Veidt's drivers at the time were killed?

So she checked their cargo. Every single one of them carried the same thing. Each record read "transmitter," but didn't elaborate. So she accessed the servaillance systems from the dates that these "transmitters" were shipped out to their respective cities. They were large, television-sized machines that slightly resembled the big one that had been in New York prior to the explosions.

A transmitter for what? She knew Adrian and Dr. Manhattan had been working on that machine for new forms of energy, but were they really that close to finishing? Were they so close that they were shipping transmitters to all the major cities? But if they were that close, why had Adrian halted the project after Dr. Manhattan left Earth? If they were close, he could easily have finished it by himself. A cold chill ran down her back.

What about the big one? Where was it on the day of the attacks?

After searching through more flight records and employee payments, she found that it was at the Pyramid base in….

"Antarctica," she breathed, her eyes growing wide. The only one not destroyed had been with Adrian.

He had flown to all the cities before the attacks… the records had said annual facility check; a cover. Oh God, what if he had flown to the cities to dispose of all the people who had transported the transmitters? What if they knew something, and that couldn't be allowed?

'They would have killed each other,' Adrian had said in his sleep.

The countries at war. They had nuclear weapons ready to fire. They would have killed each other.

'Have you ever done something you thought was right… you knew in your heart was right, but that others didn't agree with?' he had asked.

Killing millions… killing millions to save billions. 'Morally unacceptable' he had called it. Like her friend from college, Earth's nations were generally good, just needed help.

"Oh God," she breathed, staring blankly at the computer screen.

'An old friend,' had attacked him. One of the Watchmen. What if the other Watchmen had tried to stop him? Dr. Manhattan could transform his physical state into any size, which he did frequently, as the rumors said of his aid in Vietnam. What if he had destroyed the glass pyramid in Antarctica? What if he hadn't perpetrated the attacks? What if he had tried to stop them?

"No," she gasped. "No, it's not possible."